Documentary about Argentina's missing children Feb. 2 at UA

01/26/2012

A new documentary about the 35-year search by Argentinian grandmothers to find their missing grandchildren will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2, at The University of Akron's Student Union Theatre, 303 E. Carroll St.

The UA School of Communication is sponsoring the free screening of "Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and The Search for Identity" as part of campus activities during UA's fifth annual "Rethinking Race: Black, White and Beyond" Jan. 27-Feb. 10.

The members of Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo en Argentina are committed to finding their lost grandchildren, stolen, they believe, by the government of their country some 30 years ago.

At least 10,000, and, some estimate, as many as 30,000 dissidents of the military dictatorship were kidnapped, tortured and killed during Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983). They became known as Los Desaparecidos — the disappeared.

Some of the women were pregnant or were new mothers when they were captured, and their infants ended up in homes of government officials and others sympathetic to the regime. So far Las Abuelas has located more than 100 of the missing children, many of whom had no knowledge of their past or true identities. Some 400 remain missing.